Just days before the end of Second World War, the last Victoria Cross of the conflict was earned during a fighter sweep over Japan as Andrew Thomas explains.
SECOND WORLD WAR | AIR WAR OVER JAPAN
To help prosecute the planned assault on Japan, in late 1944 a powerful British Pacific Fleet was formed and in early 1945 had established its base at Sydney in Australia (see also pages 86-93). The Fleet fielded the full panoply of naval power, including battleships, escorts and submarines backed by a sizeable resupply force, the Fleet Train – also known as Task Force 112. The core of the Fleet was, however, founded in the force of armoured aircraft carriers which, although they had less aircraft carrying capacity than their US Navy equivalents, were to prove themselves resilient in the face of Kamikaze suicide attacks in the waters off Okinawa and Japan. The BPF established a forward base at Manus in the Admiralty Islands where in June the carriers HMS Formidable, Victorious and Indefatigable were joined by Implacable in preparation for operations against the Japanese Home Islands. Th…
